JUSTICE FOR THE DEAD
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| Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni eight facing trial in 1995 |
In his quivering voice, his last words were; "what have I done to you people, why are you doing this to me?"
Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni eight Activists; Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel and John Kpuine were murdered illegally and unjustly by the Nigerian State in cahoots with Shell the Multi National Oil Giant for daring to protest against the illegal oil exploration in Ogoni land which has led to environmental pollution and degradation in Ogoni. They committed a great and unforgiveable sin against the Nigerian State by forming The Movement for the Salvation of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). This Movement attracted international attention as it exposed the shady activities of Shell and the Nigerian State in the creeks of the Niger-Delta. The Nigerian State under a military regime set up a kangaroo trial which convicted Wiwa and his Comrades to death at the galore for a crime they never committed.
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| A polluted river in Ogoni land |
After over two decades of this illegal murder, justice has not yet prevailed, Saro Wiwa who was a writer wrote about the daring images of rivers polluted with oily water unsafe for human consumption and a ghost land for fishes and other water creatures that once painted the beautiful landscape of Ogoni in the days before oil was discovered in the creeks of the Niger-Delta. Today, many successive Nigerian Governments have promised ambitious plans to clean up the creeks, but along the way, these projects were abandoned. Wiwa's death has largely been in vain because Shell still robs Ogoni land of its wealth to continue expanding their global empire. The reparation paid Wiwa's family for his illegal killing is not enough to compensate for the damage that has been done to Ogoni land. Can the clean up pay for the pollution of their land, the inability to grow their own crops. The continuous search for more oil will keep degrading the environment. When will the Ogoni people truly become a free and emancipated oil rich state?
This fight for the salvation of the Ogoni People should be an African struggle against Global Capitalist empires who are on African soil to plunder our national wealth and assets. It is a fight against neo-Colonialism and economic slavery in Africa. We have no access and full right to our own national resources. Countries from Europe and the Global West hijacked the Global economy in the aftermath of the World wars by creating global Organizations which ran on western principles and ideals to control the world.
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| Nigerian Activist Omoyele Sowore leads a protest demanding exoneration for Wiwa and his Ogoni eight Comrades. |
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